Hello all, My name is Mike, I live in Bretagne, North Western France. I have recently started to use a 'proper' razor bought new but have since been looking at older better quality razors. There are hundreds for sale here in France for small euros prices. I bought one 2 months ago which I have used and is comfortable and stays very, very sharp. I was told by a French neighbour that it is a particularly rare model and could be valuable. I'll try and put a couple of photos on here to see if anyone recognises it and knows where it is from and how old. I noticed in the forums before joining that many members love the old French razors, but as a complete novice I wouldn't really know a good one from a bad one until I tried to use it. What are the brands I should be looking for? The one I have now is from a company name B&S that has a trademark called football, I think its the trademark anyway. See the photos if I can load them. All advice and help gratefully received. Cheers mates, Mike. (Briezh)
Welcome to the Den! Looks like a cool razor you have there. Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with the brand. Good luck with getting answers to your questions, and have a great journey in the world of wet shaving!
Welcome Mike! I think what you have is a German blade from Bontgen & Sabin. Walter Bontgen and Louis Sabin founded the company in the 1870's and they looked to have made cutlery, razor and other "sharp things" for quite a while. I think the company existed through 1983 when the Bonsa name was bought by Robert Klaas. Looks like after 1922 the only 3 trademarks this company used were the Bonsa name, a Leg & Football, and the B&S. The "warranted" on the tang may place it early in the 1900's and the scales have a pretty unique shape. I don't think late 1800's, even though it has no country of origin, as it may not have been made for export. Again, I hope this helps and welcome to the forum. Tom
Bienvenue à TSD Mike! I am a big fan of vintage French razors. There are many people who like them - the steel is good and holds an edge well. They can also be works of art! Amicalment, Steve
Hello and welcome Hey that's a B&S razor, it's of the finest quality. Maybe worthy of a soccer team, definitely European made. Lol, sometimes the best clues are most obvious. Most vintage razors were of decent quality, so present condition is the determining factor of what it's worth. Some names are worth the restoration, some not so much. Hang around a little while and the better names began to become more familiar through repetition.
Thanks to all for the welcome and advice. I decided to go with a straight razor after many years of rushing morning shaves to rush of to work with bits of tissue paper stuck all over my face. When I moved to France I went with a beard and just shaved edges etc slowly and infrequently. I am now back to smooth face and have been using daily my (bought brand new), razor made by "Herbertz". I think I had a good deal buying it in the annual sale for just 60 Euros. I have seen them on sale for a lot more than that. It does give a loveley clean shave but it doesn't keep its edge like the old B&S razor shown above. Un merci spécial à Steve pour ses paroles aimables en français. Also many thanks especially to Tom, & David for the excellent information. I thought the razor was old but using the info you have given me and doing a little more research it seems it is quite rare and was made around 1900. I have also found a few similar on sale for silly prices of up to $200 and a few that sold on ebay and a few other places for decent money. As I previously said I can pick up old razors here using ebay.fr, delcampe, broquants and vide grenier for around 10 euros a time. My problem is being new to straight razors I wouldn't really know if they were any good until I used them!! However if my B&S is worth a few bob, I won't really have much choice than to part with it and look around for a good deal on a another old quality razor. those idiots the other side of "La Manche" have really caused us massive problems because of their "brexit". We have lost more than 20% of our income since the decision 2 years ago and they haven't even left yet. Also we are daily living in fear wondering if we are going to have to leave France simply because from 29th March we are no longer EU citizens. At the moment we are attempting to apply for residency cards but because of how scared everyone is we don't even have an appointment until Feb next year and the cost of having all our official docs 'formally' translated by government approved translators has already cost us thousands. Whoops!!!!! sorry for the rant, it kind of gets to you when each day there's a new story on the news informing us of how our lives re going to change for the worse. Back to razors. STEVE, those razors look amazing! How did you come by them and did you have to pay a lot for them. The ones I see over here are always in need of a good clean and sharpening but I will definately be keeping an eye out for something like those. I love the decoration on the blades. Well for now, thanks to all again and just to say, I never thought taking time over a decent shave could be such a pleasure, especially with that unbeleivably smooth feel afterwards. No more 1 minute quick drags of a plastic gillette throw away again! Cheers mates and to Steve, Cdt. et Kenavo. Mike.
Bonjour Mike, The ivory-scaled Le Grelot Lotus were expensive, the others not so much compared to the average price of a new razor, and they're all near new except one of the tortoise Touron-Parisot shows a bit of use. There are bargains to be had if you look around, and sometimes that requires new scales or a professional cleanup. The razor above was bought for 10€ at a brocante but needed polishing and new scales, but it was a bargain even so. Check the brocantes and antique stores and you'll find good razors but they may need a little work. There's a French gentleman in the northwest that posts as Thaeris on many forums who does restoration work so he should be reasonably close. Good hunting sir! À bientôt! Steve
Hi Scott, the wood is Turkish walnut (link below). The scales were made by Alfredo Gil, aka Doc226. The shape is the same as the original scales and they're finished in cyanoacrylate. The third pin was added to stop the blade from coming out the bottom, as you know these kinds of razors used a curved lead wedge to hit the nose and stop the blade. The Charles Guerre I posted a while back is made the same way. http://www.turkishwalnut.net/walnut_lumbers.html I've had good experience with them and they ship quickly though the shipping is expensive. Cheers, Steve
